CN111510172A

CN111510172A - Receiver with multiple tuners and method and system for radio reception

Info

Publication number: CN111510172A
Application number: CN202010149843.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: R.克罗曼; N.斯塔尼奇; M.约翰逊; D.B.卡沙; M.R.梅
Original assignee: 硅实验室公司
Current assignee: Tiangong Solutions
Priority date: 2016-03-31
Filing date: 2017-03-31
Publication date: 2020-08-07
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-31
Also published as: CN111510172B; DE102017002909A1; US20170288764A1; CN107276605A; US20180026701A1; US9787388B1; US10128930B2; CN107276605B

Abstract

An Integrated Circuit (IC) is disclosed that includes a first Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) to oscillate at a first oscillation frequency, a second VCO to oscillate at a second oscillation frequency, a first frequency divider coupled to the first VCO to generate a first L O signal, a second frequency divider coupled to the second VCO to generate a second L O signal, wherein the first L O signal and the second L O signal are substantially at a common frequency, and a frequency range of the first oscillation frequency and a frequency range of the second oscillation frequency are mutually exclusive.

Description

Receiver with multiple tuners and method and system for radio reception

The application is a divisional application of an invention patent application with a national application number of 201710207101.X, the application date of the invention patent application is 3/31/2017, and the invention name is 'fully flexible multi-tuner front-end architecture for a receiver'.

Background

In certain radio reception environments, such as automotive environments, there may be multiple antennas and tuners to enable multiple use cases, such as phase diversity reception, dual-band reception, audio and data reception, among others. Existing fully integrated techniques may share one antenna among multiple Radio Frequency (RF) and/or Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal paths only in the event of degraded performance on one or both of the multiple RF and/or IF signal paths. For example, if a loop-through buffer is used to feed an RF signal into the auxiliary (secondary) path, the performance of the auxiliary path is typically compromised relative to the main path due to the RF characteristics of the loop-through buffer. This asymmetric performance is undesirable for a number of reasons.

As another example, if one antenna is connected to two RF inputs, and those inputs are designed to each present twice the desired termination impedance for the antenna, then an effective RF split is achieved, but the two paths will suffer from sharing power between the inputs. One solution to this problem is to include an external active splitter circuit (to one or more integrated tuners) to buffer the antenna signal. However, this circuit increases component count, increases cost and complexity, including routing issues and power consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

In one aspect, an apparatus includes a first low noise amplifier (L NA) to receive and amplify a first Radio Frequency (RF) signal in a first band of wavelengths received from a first antenna, and a first tuner having a first plurality of mixers including a first mixer to selectively couple to the first L NA to receive the first RF signal and downconvert the first RF signal received from the first L NA to a first downconverted signal.

The apparatus may further include a third L NA to receive and amplify a third RF signal of the first band received from the third antenna, wherein the third L NA is coupled to provide the third RF signal to the second tuner to enable phase diversity reception of the first band in the second mode.

In an example, the apparatus may further include an audio processor and a phase diversity combining circuit to seamlessly transition from the first mode to the second mode without audible impact on an audio signal output from the apparatus.

The apparatus may further include a second loop-through buffer coupled to an output of the second L NA to receive the first RF signal and output the first RF signal to a second receiver coupled to the apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a first receiver.

In an example, a first tuner may include a multiplexer coupled to outputs of a first plurality of mixers, the multiplexer controllable to provide an output of one of the first plurality of mixers to a signal processing path of the first tuner.

In another aspect, a method comprises: in a first mode, causing a first tuner of the entertainment system to receive and process a first RF signal from a first antenna configured for a first band of frequencies to output a first audio signal for a first radio station, and causing a second tuner of the entertainment system to receive a second RF signal from a second antenna configured for the first band of frequencies to determine a signal quality metric for one or more radio stations of the first band of frequencies; in a second mode, causing the first tuner to output a first signal representation of the first RF signal and causing the second tuner to receive and process the second RF signal from the second antenna to output a second signal representation of the second RF signal; and causing the phase diversity combining circuitry to process the first and second signal representations to output the audio signal of the first radio station without disruption to an output of the entertainment system from a broadcast of the first radio station.

In an example, the method further comprises: in a third mode, the first tuner is caused to receive and process a first RF signal from the first antenna to generate a first audio signal for the first radio, and the second tuner is caused to receive and process a second RF signal from the second antenna to generate a second audio signal for the second radio, and the linker circuit is caused to transition from the first audio signal to the second audio signal, wherein the linker circuit is to output a final audio signal without impairment due to the transition.

In another example, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed, enable an entertainment system to perform one or more methods as described herein.

In yet another aspect, a system includes at least a plurality of antennas and a first Integrated Circuit (IC) including a first tuner and a second tuner. In an example, the first IC includes: a first pad to receive a first RF signal from a first FM antenna and to symmetrically output the first RF signal to a first tuner and a second tuner, and to a first loop-through buffer to provide the first RF signal to a second IC; and a second pad to receive a second RF signal from the second FM antenna and to symmetrically output the second RF signal to the first tuner and the second tuner, and to the second loop-through buffer to provide the second RF signal to the second IC. In turn, the first tuner may have a first plurality of mixers including a first mixer to receive and downconvert a first RF signal to a first downconverted signal, a second mixer to receive and downconvert a second RF signal to a second downconverted signal, and a first signal processing path to process a selected one of the first downconverted signal and the second downconverted signal. In turn, the second tuner may have a second plurality of mixers including a second mixer to receive the second RF signal and downconvert the second RF signal to a fourth downconverted signal, a first mixer to receive the first RF signal and downconvert the first RF signal to a third downconverted signal, and a second signal processing path that is dynamically controllable to process a selected one of the third downconverted signal and the fourth downconverted signal. In an example, the first IC may further include a microcontroller to dynamically control transitions of the first tuner and the second tuner between the plurality of operating modes when the first audio signal is output by at least one of the first and second tuners.

In yet another aspect, an IC includes a first Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) to oscillate at a first oscillation frequency, a second VCO to oscillate at a second oscillation frequency, a first frequency divider coupled to the first VCO to generate a first L O signal, and a second frequency divider coupled to the second VCO to generate a second L O signal.

Drawings

Fig. 1A and 1B are block diagrams of a receiver according to an embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a multi-chip radio system in accordance with an embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with an embodiment.

Detailed Description

In various embodiments, a radio receiver including one or more tuners may have an integrated active splitter to route incoming RF signals to multiple paths in a symmetric and seamless manner. Still further, embodiments enable sufficient flexibility in selecting which of the multiple antennas feed which of the multiple signal paths. The selection may be dynamically changed in real time as the radio reception environment and/or listening station selection changes. The architecture as described herein allows for sufficiently flexible reception of one or more radio stations for primary reception, phase diversity reception, secondary reception (e.g., back seat entertainment), background/alternative station scanning, and/or traffic (traffic) data reception from one or more antennas with symmetric performance and/or minimal performance loss.

Different and dynamic modes of operation are possible, as will be described further herein. For example, reception may begin by receiving an FM station from one antenna connected to the first IF path of the first tuner. A second antenna may then be connected to a second IF path of a second tuner and tuned to the same station to achieve phase diversity reception. The system may then return to single antenna reception and the second IF signal path may be used for background scanning based on either antenna input that does not disturb the audio content listened to from the first IF path. In other use cases, the second path may then be tuned to a DAB station using a band-iii antenna input for the purpose of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)/FM seamless linking. Once the link to the DAB audio content is made, the first IF path of the first tuner may be configured to receive its input from the second band-iii antenna to achieve phase diversity reception for DAB. Or the first tuner may be configured to perform background scanning for the DAB or FM band while the second tuner is to output audio content via the second IF path. In addition to background scanning, the tuner may also be used to obtain supplemental content, such as radio broadcast data system/radio data system (RBDS/RDS) content, Traffic Message Channel (TMC) content, and transport protocol output group (TPEG) content. It should be noted that during any or all of the above modes, selected RF inputs received on-chip via one or more RF input pads (pads) may be output to downstream components via a loop-through path.

Referring now to fig. 1A and 1B, block diagrams of receivers according to embodiments are shown. More specifically, receiver 100 may be a multi-tuner arrangement that may be configured on a single semiconductor die. As described herein, receiver 100 provides active splitting of the integration of incoming RF signals from one or more antennas to enable dual tuners to process the same RF signal with symmetric performance. That is, the same RF signal is provided to both tuners at the same power level at the same time, such that both tuners process the same (or at least close to or substantially the same) signal. Still further, with active splitting as described herein, embodiments enable seamless transitions between different operating modes in which RF inputs from different antennas may be switchably coupled to different tuners.

As illustrated in fig. 1A, receiver 100 includes a plurality of input pads 105₁-105₅In the illustrated illustration, each input pad 105 may receive RF inputs obtained from a given antenna (not shown in fig. 1A, as such antennas may be implemented off-chip). in the embodiment of fig. 1A, these RF inputs may be received in multiple bands.

In some cases, a simple buffer may be provided that is integrated within L NA (as schematically shown in FIG. 1A) or coupled to the output of such L NA to buffer the amplified RF signal.

In addition, embodiments may further provide filtering functionality within L NA or closely coupled to the output of L NA more specifically, such a filter may be used to filter noise from a frequency synthesizer of another tuner on the die, which may be a low pass filter having a predetermined notching capability.

As discussed above, are connected toThe receiver 100 includes a first tuner 130₁And a second tuner 130₂The dual tuner receiver of (1). The tuner may be configured as an Intermediate Frequency (IF) tuner to downconvert and process incoming signals at a given IF frequency. However, embodiments are not so limited, and in other cases, the tuner may be configured as a low-IF or zero-IF (zif) tuner. First, refer to the first tuner 130₁A set of mixers 120 is provided₁₁-120₁₅As can be seen, each mixer is coupled to receive an incoming amplified RF signal from one of amplifiers 110a/b, 112a/b, and 114 in turn, each mixer 120 is coupled to a slave local oscillator (L O) 124₁The received mixing signal downconverts the received RF signal, the local oscillator (L O) 124₁And then received by an RF synthesizer 122₁The generated incoming clock signal. In one embodiment, RF synthesizer 122₁May be configured for operation substantially at around 3.0GHz depending on the desired channel or frequency of the station, (e.g., an on-chip Microcontroller (MCU) 150) may control L O124₁Further, to enable operation with lowest power consumption, MCU 150 may control corresponding mixers 120 of different tuners such that only a single mixer of each tuner is active at a given time.

The down-converted signal output by mixer 120 is passed through selector 125₁Which may be implemented as a multiplexer in an embodiment, is coupled to a programmable gain amplifier 126₁. At the PGA 126₁After amplification and filtering in (2), at an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 128₁In which the signal is digitized. From there, the digitized down-converted signal may be provided to tuner 130₁May perform various additional processing including filtering, gain control, decoding, and/or demodulation to output, for example, demodulated FDemodulated signals such as M or AM signals. In some cases, tuner 130 is given depending on the band of operation₁May be a modulated signal, such as in the case of a DAB or HD input.

As further shown in FIG. 1A, a loop-through path is provided to enable an output of the amplified RF signal (from the output of amplifier 110/112/114) to be communicated to one or more other components, such as other ICs including tuners or other processing circuitry, such as background scanning or traffic data receivers.

Reference is now made to the second tuner 130 on the same IC₂A second set of mixers 120 is provided₂₁-120₂₅As can be seen, each mixer is coupled to receive an incoming amplified RF signal from one of amplifiers 110a/b, 112a/b, and 114. in turn, each mixer 120 is used with a slave L O124₂The received mixed signal down-converts the received RF signal, L O124₂And then received by an RF synthesizer 122₂The generated incoming clock signal. In one embodiment, RF synthesizer 122₁May be configured to operate substantially around 4.4 GHz or substantially with RF synthesizer 122₁Is separated from the operation at another frequency.

The down-converted signal output by mixer 120 is passed through selector 125₂Which may be implemented as a multiplexer in an embodiment, is coupled to a programmable gain amplifier 126₂. At the PGA 126₂After amplification in ADC 128₂In which the signal is digitizedAnd (4) transforming. From there, the digitized down-converted signal may be provided to tuner 130₂May perform various processing including filtering, gain control, decoding, and/or demodulation to output a demodulated signal such as a demodulated FM or AM signal or a modulated signal such as in the case of a DAB or HD input.

More specifically, fig. 1B illustrates high-level circuitry further present in a multi-tuner IC. More specifically, at the corresponding ADC 128₁、128₂After digitization, the digitized down-converted signal is provided to tuner 130₁130, 130. In the illustrated embodiment, such tuner circuitry may be implemented as a radio Digital Signal Processor (DSP) 135₁、135₂. As described above, depending on the particular mode and band of operation, the radio DSP135 may further condition and process the digitized signals and demodulate the signals to produce demodulated signals (e.g., of the FM band), which may be directly output from the radio DSP 135.

Still further, additional processing circuitry may be provided. As shown, an audio processor 140 may be provided to further process the demodulated signal. In the illustrated embodiment, the audio processor 140 includes a phase diversity circuit 142. In various embodiments, phase diversity circuitry 142 may be configured to receive common content, e.g., for a given radio station, via multiple signal processing paths and perform phase diversity by, e.g., selecting a given one of the two signals for output based on a signal quality metric. In another embodiment, the phase diversity circuit 142 may be configured to perform phase diversity processing based on a maximum ratio combining technique.

As further illustrated, the audio processor 140 may further include a linker circuit 144. In various embodiments, the linker circuit 144 may be configured to perform seamless linking such that the same audio content as obtained from two different antennas (and potentially two different bands) may be linked together. For example, the linker circuit 144 may be configured to enable a smooth transition from the audio content obtained from the FM signal output to the audio content obtained from the DAB signal output (and vice versa) when the reception condition of the FM signal falls below a threshold. The linking may be performed seamlessly or transparently to the user so that the user does not detect the transition nor is the audio output adversely affected. As further illustrated, the audio processor 140 may further include an audio DSP 146 that may perform further audio processing to output a stream to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 150 as desired such that an audio output is provided.

Still further shown, the audio processor 140 may further receive incoming audio input, for example, from a similarly configured second IC including one or more receiver/tuners (and/or from a downstream external linker circuit/demodulator).

Thus, in the embodiment of fig. 1A and 1B, each tuner 130 may receive its input from any of two FM, two band-iii, and one AM RF antenna input. Each RF input may drive either or both of the IF signal paths of the tuners and/or a loop-through buffer simultaneously for connection to a downstream receiver such as a background scanning or traffic data receiver. When one RF input is used to feed two IF signal paths, the two paths will have symmetric performance (which is a desirable characteristic because the signal level, phase, and other characteristics are the same (or nearly the same)). Another benefit of an architecture as in fig. 1A and 1B is that substantially seamless transitions between different operating states can be achieved entirely on-chip under the control of the MCU 150. That is, the transition in the operational mode may occur in a manner that is transparent to the listener because the transition occurs without any audible clicks, pops, delays, or other signal distortions.

In an embodiment, frequency synthesizer 122₁、122₂May include an L C tank circuit (tank) -based Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) that operates at significantly different frequencies to reduce unwanted coupling₁May operate at approximately 3.0GHz, while frequency synthesizer 122₂To be basicIn addition, the frequency synthesizer 122 may be controlled to change frequency using rasterization techniques such that any change to the VCO frequency occurs in steps of at least 500 kilohertz (kHz) to minimize unwanted coupling between VCOs and reduce spurs (spurs) in the L O output.

By using frequency synthesizers operating at two very different frequency ranges (and which are mutually exclusive ranges), the level of spurs can be greatly reduced because the L C tank frequency response of the VCO can attenuate the energy coupled from one VCO to the other₂Capable of operating at 4.4 GHz, the L C tank may have a given capacitance (e.g., x picofarads, where x may vary in different embodiments) and an inductance of approximately 800 picohenries in an example embodiment₁It is possible to have a capacitance of 1.6x picofarads and an inductance of approximately 1 nanohenry for operation at 3.0 GHz.

To further reduce stimulation, L O124 may be implemented within the corresponding shielded region₁、124₂. Two different FM or band-iii stations may be received within the same IC and have no stimuli that would be associated when using two VCOs of the same frequency range. It should be understood that while in the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1BIs shown at this high level, many variations and alternatives are possible.

Referring now to fig. 2, shown is a block diagram of a multi-chip radio system in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in fig. 2, system 200 may be implemented as an automotive radio system having multiple tuner chips, namely a first tuner chip 220 and a second tuner chip 260, along with a third demodulator chip 250. It should be understood that although shown in this embodiment with three different ICs, in other cases some or all of the hardware circuitry of the three different ICs may be implemented into one or more dies of a single IC. Still further, different variations in the amount and type of circuitry of each IC are possible.

As illustrated, the incoming RF signals are transmitted by multiple antennas 210₁-210₂And receiving. It should be understood that while shown with two antennas for ease of illustration, in many cases a given vehicle may include more than two antennas. As an example, some vehicles may include two (or more) FM antennas, two (or more) band-iii antennas, and at least one AM antenna. However, for ease of illustration, two representative antennas are shown (it being understood that this representation of two antennas may in fact be implemented as more than two antennas).

To recover the RF signals of a given band, antenna 210 may be coupled to filter/antenna switch 215₁-215₂Which can perform appropriate filtering to thereby output RF signals of at least three bands, i.e., FM, DAB, and AM. In certain vehicle installations, antenna 210 and switch 215 may be implemented at a given location, e.g., near the rear of the vehicle, e.g., antenna 210 may be implemented on a rear window, rear side window, roof or trunk mounted unit, etc. Circuitry in close proximity to such an antenna may be provided to provide RF signals to tuner 220/260, for example, via one or more coaxial cables.

In the illustrated embodiment, the tuners 220/260 may be different instantiations of the same tuner device. However, these different tuners may be configured differently to perform different primary functions. Likewise, each tuner is shown in fig. 2 as having different constituent components. Thus, as illustrated, tuner 220 may be configured to function as a basic FM and AM tuner, while tuner 260 may be configured to function as a basic DAB tuner. More specifically, referring to tuner 220, it includes a dual tuner circuit 230 to perform FM phase diversity processing, dual FM channel processing (e.g., two different FM channels, one for the primary entertainment system and one for the secondary (e.g., back seat) entertainment system), FM and DAB seamless linking, and AM band operation (and, of course, single channel FM reception).

Likewise, tuner 220 is configured to receive via input pad 222_aAnd 222_bSlave antenna 210₁And 210₂The FM RF signal is received directly. In addition, in order to enable the same signal to be supplied to the second tuner 260, a loop through pad 223 may be provided_aAnd 223_bThe incoming FM RM signal is output. Similarly, when tuner 220 is acting as an auxiliary DAB tuner, it is indirectly via input pad 224_a/224_bIncoming DAB band RF signals are received from second tuner 260 rather than directly from antenna 210. As further illustrated, tuner 220 receives an AM band RF signal via input pad 225.

After one or more FM signals are appropriately processed in the dual tuner circuit 230, the resulting modulated signals may be provided to an audio Digital Signal Processor (DSP) 235 for additional audio processing (e.g., multi-channel processing) such that may be via a plurality of channels 236 including corresponding digital-to-analog converters_a–236_cAudio output is provided to enable the audio output to a desired destination (e.g., multiple channels of speakers). As further shown, the demodulated FM audio may be output to demodulator 250 via pad 238, as described below. As further shown, the mixed audio may be received via pad 240 to enable further audio processing in audio DSP 235 and output from tuner 220.

In a similar manner, the tuner 260 includes a dual tuner circuit 270 to perform DAB phase diversity or multi-rate combining processing, dual DAB channel processing (e.g., two different DAB channels, one for the primary entertainment system and one for the secondary (e.g., back seat) entertainment system), FM and DAB seamless linking.

Likewise, tuner 260 is configured to receive via input pad 264_aAnd 264_bSlave antenna 210₁And 210₂The DAB RF signal is received directly. In addition, in order to enable the same signal to be supplied to the first tuner 220, the pass-through pad 263 may be passed through_aAnd 263_bOutputting the incoming DAB RM signal. Similarly, when tuner 260 acts as an auxiliary FM tuner, it is indirectly via input pad 262_a/262_bIncoming FM RF signals are received from first tuner 220 rather than directly from antenna 210. As further illustrated, the tuner 260 receives an AM band RF signal via a loop through pad 265.

After one or more DAB signals are properly processed in the dual tuner circuit 270, the resulting DAB modulated signal can be provided to the demodulator 250 via pad 266 for demodulation and potentially linking with FM signals from the first IC 220.

As further illustrated in fig. 2, the demodulator 250 may be configured to demodulate an incoming modulated DAB signal received from the tuner 260. More specifically, the dual tuner circuit 270 may output the DAB signal as two sets of I/Q data from the two tuners to the demodulator 250, which demodulator 250 may thus demodulate the DAB signal and provide the demodulated DAB signal to the first tuner 220 for further audio processing and output. Similarly, when the mode of operation for FM-DAB mixing is active, the demodulator 250 can perform a seamless linking between the same audio content from the two different bands. To this end, demodulator 250 may include a large amount of memory, such as buffer circuitry, to buffer the processed audio of a leading one of the bands, so that the common content of the two bands may be linked together in time such that transitions between any one stream are not noticeable to a listener. It should also be noted that demodulator 250 may further perform Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) phase diversity for HD and/or DAB signals.

It should also be understood that while fig. 2 shows an implementation with multiple separate ICs, embodiments are not so limited, and in another implementation more than two tuners may be adapted within a single IC, e.g., both on a single semiconductor die or as separate dies within a multi-chip module (MCM). In some cases, external demodulator/linker 250 may also be implemented within an IC, e.g., on a single semiconductor die or as part of an MCM.

Referring now to fig. 3, shown is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in diagram 300, control logic, such as a hardware-based microcontroller of a tuner, which may be in communication with a main processor of an entertainment system, may be configured to cause multiple tuners as described herein to execute in a wide variety of different operating modes. It should be understood that the following discussion of fig. 3 is primarily concerned with the reception and processing of the first radio station desired by the listener. Of course, it should be understood that many different modes of operation and transitions between them may occur when a listener desires to tune to a different station. Background operations may also be performed in the various modes of operation described herein. Such operations, which may be performed on one or both tuners, may be used to perform background scanning of available stations and to determine signal quality metrics thereof.

In addition, non-audio data such as RDS and/or traffic data may be obtained through these background operations. The information determined via these tuners may be provided to a microprocessor, which in turn may communicate with a host processor, e.g., via a given software Application Programming Interface (API). Likewise, the host processor may be the primary initiator of the audio system mode transition based on user input and operating programs described herein. The host operating system then provides instructions to the microprocessor to cause the microprocessor to flexibly configure and reconfigure the multi-tuner to operate in a given mode of operation and transition between modes of operation as appropriate.

Referring to fig. 3, in a first mode of operation (block 310), a first radio station is tuned using a first FM antenna and a first tuner. After appropriate signal processing of the received FM signal, an audio signal of the first radio station may be output from the first tuner to an output (e.g., a speaker) of the entertainment system.

In another mode of operation (block 320), phase diversity may be performed such that both tuners output the same first radio station as modulated signals to be combined in a phase diversity combining circuit, and thereafter demodulated and output as audio signals. Here, each tuner is coupled to a different antenna to enable the phase diversity operation. The transition may be initiated when the first antenna suffers from impairments in signal reception, e.g. due to multipath fading. It should be noted that the transition between single antenna reception and phase diversity reception may occur seamlessly, i.e. without any audio artifacts, pop, click or other audible distortion.

At block 330, another mode of operation may occur to perform a background scan. More specifically, the microprocessor may cause the second tuner to switch to a background scanning mode to determine a signal quality metric for one or more background radio stations (as well as the first radio station). As discussed above, this information as determined in the second tuner may be provided to the microprocessor, which in turn provides this information to the host processor. In this mode, the first tuner may continue to tune and output the first radio station.

In addition to determining a signal quality metric for FM channels, the tuner may perform such background scanning operations with respect to DAB channels. Likewise, in another mode of operation as shown at block 340, the second tuner may be switched to receive input from the band-iii antenna to perform such background scanning. Still in this mode, the first tuner may process and output the first radio station.

Assume that as the vehicle travels, its signal quality for the first radio station received via the FM band begins to degrade. However, it is assumed that there is also a DAB channel available for this same radio station. In this example, at block 350, another mode of operation enables tuning of the first radio station in the DAB channel via the second tuner. The two signals of the same content may then be seamlessly linked, accounting for the delay difference between the two signals. In an embodiment, this seamless linking may be performed by downstream circuitry, such as a separate demodulator/linker chip. Thereafter, operation may continue with the first radio station being received and processed using the DAB channel. Thus, at this point, the first tuner is available and, at block 360, another mode of operation enables phase diversity processing for the DAB channel. Likewise, the first tuner may be controlled to receive band-iii signals from the band-iii antenna and output the DAB channel to perform phase diversity processing.

In some instances, audio content for a given radio station may be transmitted on multiple or alternative frequencies, such as where each of multiple transmit antennas are located in different geographic locations. Assume that the vehicle is traveling such that it begins to lose signals from a first transmit antenna transmitting at a first frequency. However, based on the background scan, it is determined that the same audio content is available on alternate frequencies, e.g., via the same or different radio stations with transmit antennas transmitting at the second frequency. Accordingly, as shown at block 370, an alternate frequency switch may be performed such that the second tuner is switched to tune to the radio station via the alternate frequency (e.g., using the DAB input). After appropriate mixing, the audio content of the alternate frequency station may be output via a second tuner.

As further shown in fig. 3, at block 380 (shown as optional in dashed-line blocks), one or more of the received RF signals may be provided to one or more downstream tuners via a bypass path, such as the loop-through buffer described above.

It will be appreciated that although shown with these particular modes of operation and showing switching of control between different tuners, many variations and alternatives are possible. Further, while specific transitions between different modes of operation are described above, it is possible that many other transitions between the above-described modes and other modes occur. Still further, while a specific representative tuner to process a given RF signal from a given antenna is discussed above, it should be understood that such a selection is arbitrary and that a given programming of an MCU or other control logic with programmable instructions stored in a non-transitory storage medium may require operations performed by different tuners or combinations of tuners. And while the above examples refer to AM, FM, and DAB bands, the embodiments are applicable to tuners and control logic configured for additional radio bands.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention.

Claims

1. An Integrated Circuit (IC), comprising:

a first voltage controlled oscillator VCO for oscillating at a first oscillation frequency;

a second VCO to oscillate at a second oscillation frequency;

a first frequency divider coupled to the first VCO to generate a first L O signal;

a second frequency divider coupled to the second VCO to generate a second L O signal, wherein the first L O signal and the second L O signal are substantially at a common frequency, and a frequency range of the first oscillation frequency and a frequency range of the second oscillation frequency are mutually exclusive.

2. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC comprises a single semiconductor die comprising a first tuner and a second tuner.

3. The IC of claim 2, wherein the first tuner comprises a first plurality of mixers each to selectively receive the first L O signal and a second plurality of mixers each to selectively receive the second L O signal.

4. The IC of claim 3, wherein in a first mode, the first tuner and the second tuner are to simultaneously process a common signal band obtained from a first antenna.

5. The IC of claim 3, wherein in the second mode, the first tuner is to process signals from a first antenna and simultaneously the second tuner is to process signals from a second antenna.

6. The IC of claim 5, further comprising a first low noise amplifier L NA to receive the signal from the first antenna and to output an amplified first signal to a first mixer of the first plurality of mixers.

7. The IC of claim 5, further comprising at least one buffer to buffer signals from the first antenna for output from the single semiconductor die.

8. The IC of claim 7, further comprising at least one second buffer to buffer signals from the second antenna for output from the single semiconductor die.

9. A receiver, comprising:

a first configurable tuner comprising a first set of mixers, each of the first set of mixers for receiving a Radio Frequency (RF) signal obtained from one of a plurality of RF sources; a selection circuit for providing a downconverted signal from a selected one of the first set of mixers to a signal processing path; and at least one buffer to buffer at least one RF signal obtained from the plurality of RF sources for output;

a second configurable tuner comprising a second set of mixers, each of the second set of mixers for receiving an RF signal obtained from one of a plurality of RF sources; a second selection circuit to provide a second downconverted signal from a selected one of the second set of mixers to a second signal processing path; and at least one second buffer to buffer at least one RF signal obtained from the plurality of RF sources for output; and

a controller to dynamically configure at least one of the first configurable tuner and the second configurable tuner to receive and process an input RF signal in a plurality of operating modes.

10. The receiver of claim 9, further comprising a first low noise amplifier L NA to receive a first RF signal from a first RF source of the plurality of RF sources and output an amplified first RF signal to the first configurable tuner and the second configurable tuner.

11. The receiver of claim 10, further comprising a second low noise amplifier L NA to receive a second RF signal from a second RF source of the plurality of RF sources and output an amplified second RF signal to the first configurable tuner and the second configurable tuner.

12. The receiver of claim 10, wherein the at least one buffer comprises a first loop-through buffer coupled to an output of the first L NA, the first loop-through buffer to provide the amplified first RF signal to a background scanning receiver.

13. The receiver of claim 9, further comprising a semiconductor die including the first configurable tuner and the second configurable tuner.

14. The receiver of claim 9, wherein:

the first configurable tuner comprises a first digital signal processor for demodulating the downconverted signal into a first demodulated signal; and

the second configurable tuner comprises a second digital signal processor for demodulating the second downconverted signal into a second demodulated signal.

15. The receiver of claim 14, further comprising an audio processor to receive the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal and to select one of the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal for output.

16. The receiver of claim 14, further comprising a phase diversity circuit to combine the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal based on signal quality information.

17. The receiver of claim 14, further comprising a linker circuit to convert an audio output from the first demodulated signal to the second demodulated signal based on a reception condition.

18. A system for radio reception, comprising:

a first tuner for receiving a plurality of Radio Frequency (RF) signals from a plurality of antennas, the first tuner for receiving a first FM RF signal via a first input pad, the first tuner having a first plurality of mixers including a first mixer for being selectively coupled to receive and downconvert the first FM RF signal to a first downconverted signal, the first tuner for processing the first downconverted signal; and

a second tuner for receiving at least some of the plurality of radio frequency signals from the plurality of antennas, the second tuner for receiving a second FM RF signal via a second input pad, the second tuner having a second plurality of mixers including a second mixer for selectively being coupled to receive and downconvert the second FM RF signal to a second downconverted signal and a first mixer for selectively being coupled to receive and downconvert the first FM RF signal to a third downconverted signal, the second tuner controllable to process a selected one of the second downconverted signal and the third downconverted signal provided by a selected one of the second mixer and the first mixer of the second tuner.

19. The system for radio reception of claim 18, further comprising a switch to simultaneously provide the first FM RF signal to the first tuner and to the second tuner.

20. The system for radio reception of claim 18, further comprising a phase diversity combining circuit to combine the first downconverted signal and the second downconverted signal to output an audio signal.

21. The system for radio reception of claim 20, further comprising an audio processor to seamlessly transition from a first mode in which the first downconverted signal and the second downconverted signal are combined to a second mode in which the second tuner provides background information.

22. The system for radio reception of claim 19, further comprising:

a first low noise amplifier L NA for receiving and amplifying the first FM RF signal, and

a first loop through buffer coupled to the output of the first L NA to receive the first FM RF signal and output the first FM RF signal to the second tuner, wherein the output of the first L NA is further coupled to the first mixer of the first tuner.

23. The system for radio reception of claim 22, further comprising:

a second L NA for receiving and amplifying the second FM RF signal, and

a second loop-through buffer coupled to an output of the second L NA to receive the second FM RF signal and output the second FM RF signal to the first tuner.

24. The system for radio reception of claim 19, wherein the first tuner comprises a first frequency generator operating at a first frequency and the second tuner comprises a second frequency generator operating at a second frequency substantially different from the first frequency when the first and second tuners are used to process the first FM RF signal.

25. A method for radio reception, comprising:

in a first mode, controlling a first tuner of a receiver to receive and process a first RF signal from a first antenna configured for a first band of wavelengths to output a first audio signal for a first radio, and controlling a second tuner of the receiver to receive a second RF signal from a second antenna configured for the first band of wavelengths to determine a signal quality metric for at least the first radio; and

in a second mode, the first tuner is controlled to output a first signal representation of the first RF signal, and the second tuner is controlled to receive and process a second RF signal from the second antenna to output a second signal representation of the second RF signal, the first and second signal representations being processed to output a second audio signal for the first radio station, thereby converting the output of the receiver from the first audio signal to the second audio signal.

26. The method for radio reception of claim 25, further comprising: in a third mode, the first tuner is controlled to receive and process the first RF signal from the first antenna to output the first audio signal of the first radio station, and the second tuner is controlled to receive and process a second RF signal from the second antenna to output a third audio signal of a second radio station, and the output is converted from the first audio signal to the third audio signal.

27. The method for radio reception of claim 25, wherein processing the first and second signal representations includes processing the first and second signal representations in a phase diversity combining circuit.